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Showing posts from June, 2008

Awesome Ice Cream

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I decided to trek out to Williamsburg Sunday morning to check out the Unfancy Food Show and see what it was all about. It was about 90 degrees and extremely humid around 12:00 and I thought the walk to the bar from the L train was going to kill me. By the time I got to the place I was sweating profusely and looking for some good food and drink. I was actually one of the first people there and the vendors were still setting up. I was surprised to see how small the event was but they really packed a lot of great stuff in the timy space. There were so many great things there, especially the sea salt and almond chocolates from the Mast brothers, but I couldn't really pick anything up because I was afraid it would melt on the walk back. The one thing I did decide to buy though was the ice cream. I had a sample of the chocolate flavor upon walking in and the rest of the show I just kept thinking about it. So on my way out I stopped back and picked up a scoop for the road. I already knew

Another Cheap Solid Meal At Spice

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It's funny- if Mr. T and I look back on all of the places we've eaten at since moving to NYC over 6 years ago- I can almost guarantee that we've been to Spice the most. Our first time there, a college friend from Vegas had come to visit. We were so poor we hadn't been out to eat anywhere and had no idea what to do with him! I remembered hearing about this Thai place and we decided to give it a shot. Two hours later, filled with a flaming volcanic chicken dish and multiple sake bombs, we were a little tipsy, a lot full, and still had some pennies in our pockets. The rest is history. Spice is one of those places that we almost always go to when friends come to visit. The city restaurants can be a bit of a sticker shock and this helps ease that pain. We came back here about 2 weeks ago for lunch when Mr.T's best friend was visiting from San Diego. Their lunch specials are a great deal because you receive a free appetizer with every entree and entrees are generally $7-$

Market Table

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Mr T completely surprised me the other day by making dinner reservations at Market table for Friday! He's surprised me with dinners before (okay only once before) but this was special. I had tried to go to Market Table a bunch of times and something always came up to prevent it from happening. So I was absolutely thrilled when he told me the news and I decided not to leave him after all :) We got to Market Table around 6:30 on Friday night and the place was relatively empty. First of all, I love the space!! High wooden ceilings made the space open and airy while the big windows bring in the sunlight and look right out onto the street corner for optimal people watching time. The wind had started to pick up as we were walking in and we hoped to see a rainstorm while we ate, but unfortunately that never happened. We were seated in the middle of the room at a big wooden butcher block table. We ordered a bottle of wine and listened to the specials of the day. I was excited because they

Weekend Highlights- the Little Owl, Spotted Pig, Cru, Sabarsky & Babbo

So we had a fantastic, and I mean really fantastic, culinary weekend of eating with my parents in town. Unfortunately Mr. T was uploading some things onto my iPhone and somehow erased all my food pictures!!! So I'll just give a couple brief highlights from the trip. I have actually been to all of these places before except for Babbo so it was nice to take my parents to places I love. Thursday night- scored a last minute reservation at the Little Owl. Couldn't believe my luck. Of course we ordered the pork chop and gravy meatball sliders which were a hit. But my favorite of the night was the Halibut with corn and English peas. It was one of the best fish dishes I have ever had. The fish was super moist with a crackly skin on top which was heavenly alongside peas and their puree. It tasted like spring. Friday lunch at the Spotted Pig. Dad loved the burger (hated the shoestrings though which my mother and I happily ate instead). Mom liked her grilled cheese which was rich and thic

Seriously Good Dessert At Cafe Sabarsky

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My parents were in town this weekend visiting for the first time since last September. My father is a dessert manic and came across Cafe Sabarsky last time they were in town and fell in love with the place. So we headed over there early on Friday and grabbed some dinner. Cafe Sabarsky is actually inside of the Neue Galerie which displays German and Austrian artwork. The cafe serves mainly Viennese food with a big focus on desserts. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry since we had a big lunch at the Spotted Pig earlier (which I'll post about later) so I just ordered the Dill and Cucumber Salad. This was a great dish fit for the extremely hot day we were having. The yogurt sauce was light and the cool cucumbers and tomatoes just tasted really refreshing. Although the dill was a prominent feature of the dish, it was on the lighter side. I had some bites of my parents Bavarian sausages and they were both very good. But come on. The really great stuff here is the desserts. I orde

Brunch at Wakiya

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Mr. T.’s sister and husband are moving to Florida in a couple of weeks, so they threw a going away party on Saturday night. They ordered a bunch of appetizers to snack on at the bar throughout the night and most people gobbled them right up. Most people except for Mr. T. In his defense he was called out of the party for a work matter halfway through and then tried to play “catch up” when he got back by drinking a bunch of Duvel’s and forgoing the food all together. We woke up Sunday morning and needless to say he was a little worse for wear and starving! I went through a list of foods I could go grab but there was only one thing he wanted- dim sum. Nothing else would do. I took a look at the temperature outside and saw it was around 95 degrees. No way in hell were we going to schlep all the way down to Chinatown in this heat! Then I remembered seeing that Wakiya did a weekend dim sum brunch. We looked it up on their website and decided, although a bit pricier than we wanted, t

Art & Octopus

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We decided to go and check out the MET rooftop last Saturday since neither of us had ever been. The place was packed but we managed to fight through the crowds and found our way up to the top of the building. For some reason I thought the view was going to be better. I mean, it was nice but the bushes that go all around the side kind of block the view if you're not super tall. They had a pretty cool exhibit at the top though by Jeff Koons. Here's a picture of one of the displays. Anyway- this is a food blog not an art blog right! So after the Met we walked downtown a little and realized we were pretty hungry. We were meeting friends for dinner later so we didn't want a huge meal just a little snack. I realized we were only a couple blocks away from Mia Dona so we headed over there and grabbed a couple seats at the bar. Mia Dona has a long slick looking space. While the front is kind of dark and cool the back is more mellow and bright. They even have a couple of tables outsi

Bar Masa

So Mr. T and I had some gift certificates to Bar Masa we received for Christmas. We have always wanted to try Masa proper but starting at $400 a person for dinner really isn’t in our price range! It was a Saturday and we were feeling some really good sushi in a non-rushed environment. We decided to go for a midday meal around 3:00. The minimalist décor and draped curtains completely fit our mood. There was only one other table of four when we arrived. Everything was perfect...at first. Since it was an off hour, they weren't offering any of their hot dishes- just a limited sushi and sashimi menu. I won’t go into every dish in detail, just some of the Two pieces of young Yellowtail Hamachi. We were shocked at how small the pieces of sushi were. I’m a small person and I could probably eat about 50 pieces- no exaggeration. And while it was soft and light I think I have had better at other sushi joints. Hotate which is scallop seared with salt and yuzu zest. This was exce